Ted Haggard, I'm going to make this perfectly clear

DENVER – Disgraced evangelical leader Ted Haggard's former church disclosed Friday that the gay sex scandal that caused his downfall extends to a young male church volunteer who reported having a sexual relationship with Haggard — a revelation that comes as Haggard tries to repair his public image.

Brady Boyd, who succeeded Haggard as senior pastor of the 10,000-member New Life Church in Colorado Springs, told The Associated Press that the man came forward to church officials in late 2006 shortly after a Denver male prostitute claimed to have had a three-year cash-for-sex relationship with Haggard.

Boyd said an "overwhelming pool of evidence" pointed to an "inappropriate, consensual sexual relationship" that "went on for a long period of time ... it wasn't a one-time act." Boyd said the man was in his early 20s at the time. He said he was certain the man was of legal age when it began.

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You are gay, Ted. You enjoy having sex with men. This is not concentrated evil coming out of you, this is not temptation from Satan, this is not something wrong with the cosmos or something wrong with your brain. You are a gay man. You do not need to apologize for this. You do not need to go on apology tours. You do not have to live in denial. You shouldn't live in denial. That's why people turned on you, that's why you're "disgraced." Because you pretended to be something that you weren't, because you campaigned and raged against who you were. Which is a gay man. You are a gay man.